ADVENTURE + ALIVENESS Page 10 of 22

July’s happy list is here!

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Happy List July

What’s is making you happy this month? What is making your heart sing? What are you most grateful for?

Write it all down on July’s happy list! Big things, small things – it really doesn’t matter! All that matters is that everything on your list makes you smile and feel thankful.

Brighton marinaOn my happy list this month… fun, freedom and new experiences! It was so much fun chartering a yacht from Brighton Marina and spending some quality time with the Do What You Love team ~ Rachel

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Download July’s happy list here and start celebrating your happiness today!

You are the master of your own destiny

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Today’s post is written by our Senior Editor, Rachel Kempton.

My big dream, growing up, was to be a magazine journalist. When I was eight-years-old I had an article published in a national newspaper and that was it. I just knew that was what I wanted to do. But as I got older, a combination of bad careers advice and self-doubt led me down a different path and for years my dream was just that: a dream.

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What would you do with a day away?

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Last week we had our annual ‘away day’ at Do What You Love. It was actually two days – a strategy meeting on Wednesday, and a day on a yacht on Thursday! We chartered the boat to give us a way to get a complete change of scenery, open our minds and think differently. And it worked!

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We were brainstorming ideas for my book (more on that in the coming weeks), and it was amazing how the gentle lapping waves helped us forget about to-do lists and tune into some big deep questions.

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It was also good to spend some fun time with our lovely team, on a gloriously sunny day, to hear more about their individual dreams and plans, and get to know them better.

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We are only a small team, but moments like this are important.

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Even if you work on your own (or for someone else), can you give yourself the gift of an away day? If so, here are some tips to make it special:

  • Put it in your diary and guard that time carefully. No adding little meetings, or cutting it short for urgent business. Protect it, and make it happen.
  • Go somewhere you don’t normally spend time, or use an interesting mode of transport to get there. Try being on the move as you think – perhaps walking, hiking, cycling, or sailing.
  • Clear away all distractions (no email, no phones, no small people – just for a few hours!)
  • Plan one specific thing to think about, and ask yourself a handful of probing questions
  • Let your mind wander, and see what emerges
  • Make notes about your ideas, as they may disappear as easily as they arrive

This week we challenge you to find time for your own awayday. We’d love to know what you thought about, and what came out of it – please share with us on Facebook or Twitter!

Have a lovely week

Beth and team

[Tweet “What would you do with a day away? “]

Everything is possible

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Remember those dreams you had when you were a kid? As children we could lose hours pretending we were explorers,  zoo keepers, sports champions, movie stars or characters from our favourite storybooks. Heroes or villains, astronauts or aliens, pirates or deep sea divers – no adventure – real or fantastic – seemed impossible. The only limit was our imagination.

Imagination is a powerful thing. It makes it possible to experience a whole world inside the mind. It enables us to look at any situation from a different point of view, and to mentally explore the past and the future. It’s the key to achieving our goals and making our dreams a reality.

Do you still have a wild imagination? What are your big dreams? Do you believe they are possible? What are you doing towards making them happen? 

How my book became an Amazon best seller

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Alastair Humphries

 

This is a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.

 

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The day you finish writing your book is not the day your book is finished. Nor is it the day the book is published and you gaze with a mixture of relief, disbelief, pride and trepidation on the book in your hand. Your book! At last!

Now you need to sell your book. This requires at least as much work, and is almost as important, as crafting your beautiful manuscript was in the first place.

My book Microadventures, reached #12 on the chart for all books sold on Amazon UK. To put this in context, my long-time most popular book, Moods of Future Joys, is currently sitting at 33,365 in the book rankings!

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Here are a few things to consider that will help you boost your sales on Amazon.

1. How does your book, and how do you, the author, look on the site?

How good is your Amazon author page? Get your photo, bio and Twitter feed all up to date on there.

How good is the book page itself? Can you ‘Look Inside’ the book? Are there plenty of images available (where appropriate)? Are there enough? Is the description of the book as good as it could be? Look at the books of your competitors to see how you match up.

If you have several versions of the same book available (paperback and Kindle, for example), get them consolidated onto one page. Fix any inconsistencies. Having random rubbish appear when people search for you and your books damages your brand equity. Yes I did just write “brand equity”!

2. Make sure the book is very “discoverable” 

People search for books in two way, so you need to focus on both things. These are:

Search: What keywords are people going to type in to find your book? Amazon explains it well: “Please include any words customers would use to search for your product on search engines that aren’t already in your item title attributes – brand name, model name, target audience, product description, size, size unit of measurement or colour name.” You can get idea of the stuff that people search for by typing in a word to the Amazon search box. Amazon then drops down lots of suggestions. Nab these. Then write the word followed by ‘a’ to get the popular second words beginning with ‘a’. Then do it for ‘b’ and so on… (Thanks, Jo, for this tip!)

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Dual Noding: Also known as “finding your book in more than one area”. Look at the list of topics on the left of the page here. Could your book fit into more than one category?  Where might the customer reasonably search for your book? There are a bazillion sub-categories to all of these things too.  You obviously want to be in the right category. But bear in mind that if you can become a best-seller in a tiny, random category then you can more or less claim your book to be best-selling without feeling too much of a fraud. Clearly every book ever written claims to be best-selling so I wouldn’t hold too much in store from this dubious honour!

See what random categories my book has ended up in:

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3. Casting the net wide

I should have (but haven’t) tried to get the book on Audible.

4. Reviews

If you are an Amazon customer yourself you will know how you respond to items that have lots or not many reviews. Which do you prefer? My personal preference is for books that have lots of reviews, but not when the reviews have blatantly all just been written by the authors friends with an instant 5-star rating.

When Microadventures came out I worked really hard to get people to review the book. I asked – a lot – on social media. I probably annoyed people by doing it too much. I didn’t ask them to write a good review, I asked for an honest review. I didn’t just want 50 identical 5-star reviews from my friends. I believed that the book was good and that the reviews would genuinely be good. So I was willing to accept a few bad ones too, if necessary. Like this 1-star review I got.

5. Rally your tribe

Amazon takes note of spikes of sales: sudden sharp bursts of activity are more likely to get your book zooming up the charts than a steady trickle of sales. You need to rally your tribe – your friends, family, blog readers, social media followers and beg, plead, order them to buy your book on one certain date. Don’t do this lightly – it’s quite annoying for them. But people are willing to tolerate you hassling them like this if you’ll built up a rapport and a store of goodwill. Here’s how I did it for Microadventures. I went so far as to offer one of my other books for free as an incentive.

I am certainly not an expert about any of this stuff, so I would welcome any thoughts and suggestions you might have.

Good luck!

We love big crazy dreams

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Make your big crazy dreams come true this June!

Do you find yourself thinking things like: “I can’t afford to _______” … or “I’m too old to _______” … or “I’m going to need years of training before I can _______” … or “It’s just not realistic for me to _______?” Then our flagship e-course is for you – and you can register today!

Do What You Love is an acclaimed transformational course that will show you that all of your options are still open, no matter what your current circumstances and responsibilities may be. It’s about re-opening doors that you thought were locked shut… re-opening possibilities that you thought were long gone… and illuminating possibilities you never knew existed.

Over the period of 5 weeks course you’ll be inspired and motivated. You’ll learn things about yourself that you may never have know and you’ll have lots of fun! Lessons are energising and doable and they’ve been carefully sequenced to help you build confidence, build a plan and build momentum.

Join us and make possibility your new reality.

“Thanks to this course I stepped off the ledge and did something I have been wanting to do for years – and I feel lighter than air.” ~ Christine B

Ditch the routine

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Do you have a routine? How does it go?

Chances are you don’t acknowledge your routine day to day, but we bet you have one. You probably go through most of it on autopilot, without stopping to consider whether what you’re doing is healthy, productive or enjoyable. Isn’t it time to change that?

We’ve been really enjoying doing the activities from the Do What You Love e-course recently. Week three of the course is all about being brave and coming alive. One of the activities asks you to spend a day mixing things up a bit, so we asked Rose to ditch her routine today. Here’s what happened.

When I started thinking about what I was going to do differently today, I was at a bit of a loss. Shaking up your routine is inevitably going to move you out of your comfort zone – that was clear at the very moment I started thinking about it. But when I really got to thinking about what I could do differently, I felt a strange sense of excitement.

It started with breakfast. Today I swapped my usual Marmite for Nutella and bananas on toast. Having chocolate for breakfast always feels indulgent, but it’s the chocolate-banana combo that makes this an unbeatable start to the day.

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Rather than sitting straight down in front of my computer after breakfast, I decided to go for a morning stroll on the seafront. It was a beautiful day – sunny and breezy – and I was surprised to find so many people by the sea before 9am. I was even more surprised at how friendly everyone was. I tend to assume everyone is grumpy in the morning, not being a morning person myself. But receiving so many friendly hellos so early in the day put me in a great mood.

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After my stroll it was time to get to work. But I was feeling remarkably chirpy, and I didn’t fancy working on my own. I decided to give my friend (a freelance designer who works from home) a call. She invited me to work at her house, so I grabbed some juice and biscuits and headed over.

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I loved working somewhere new in the company of my friend and her cat, Mila. We enjoyed frothy coffee, countless snacks and great music. And I had a really productive working day.

I was so surprised at what an effect shaking up my routine had on my mood, and my productivity. I felt more alive today than I have in weeks. I’m looking forward to changing my routine in different ways in the future – perhaps I’ll end up replacing my old routine with a great new one that’s just right for me!

The Do What You Love e-course will help you ditch bad habits and boring routines, and lead you to see what you really want (or need) more clearly.

“I am now far more open to ideas and willing to say yes to opportunities. I think, well, whats the worst that can happen?!” Shona W., Do What You Love participant, Jan 2015

Join us this June for the experience of a lifetime.

Where’s your happy place?

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“Secondary to being with my family, I am most happy when I am kite surfing – give me a kite and a board and some wind and waves, and you won’t wipe the smile off my face. Why does it make me happy? There’s a feeling of freedom, exhilaration, and oneness with nature that comes from kiting – and an extraordinary rush of adrenaline. On top of that it’s great exercise, recreation, relaxation and stress management, and there’s something so spiritual about the experience.” ~ Richard Branson

The places in which we choose to live, work and play can affect us on so many levels. They can influence our moods, our energy levels, our ability to think clearly and creatively, and even the way we move and interact with others. For instance, when you’re being interviewed for a new job you might feel tense because you’re so keen to impress; when you’re on a roller coaster you might feel exhilarated with the thrill of the ride; when you walk through a busy train station, you might find yourself speeding up to keep pace with the crowds; and when you enter a warm, welcoming and familiar space, chances are you’ll automatically relax.

Paying close attention to the affect that different environments have on the way we think and feel can help us figure out where we feel happiest and then take positive steps towards spending more time in these, or finding ways of creating happy places in our daily lives.

Creating your happy place

When I joined Do What You Love I realised just how important it is to have a space of my own. Working remotely from a laptop gives me the freedom to work anytime, anywhere in the world, but I also wanted a home office, a base with a desk, storage, and all my creature comforts. As I started visualising what my ‘office’ could look like I had a lightbulb moment: this space could be lots of other things too; somewhere I could go to read, paint, be creative and practice yoga.

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It’s the first time I’ve ever had a room of my own, a bright airy space, filled with colour, fairy lights, beautiful books, and inspirational things I’ve collected over the years. Everywhere I look I’m reminded of things I love – my family and friends, hobbies, work, travels, adventures, experiences and dreams. It really is my own little piece of paradise.

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We all dream of having a place or a space where we can get away from it all, glean fresh inspiration and enjoy some me time.

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[Tweet “To find your happy place, ask yourself…”]

  • What kind of environments are you most drawn to? (For example, the sea, buzzing cities, countryside, cliffs, hilly landscapes, mountains, lakes, warm climates, etc.)
  • What kind of spaces did you gravitate towards as a child: the hidey-hole under the stairs, a window seat in an alcove, a treehouse nestled high in the branches of a tree. What made these spaces so magical?
  • What is your favourite room in the house, or what has the potential to be? What would you need to do in order to turn it into a place you love spending time? What design elements make spaces more inspiring?
  • If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Is it somewhere you’ve been, or a place you’re aching to explore for the first time?
  • Where do you feel most energised and alive?
  • Where do you feel most calm and at peace?
  • Which environments make you feel powerful?
  • Where are you when you lose track of time?

Rachel

Find the happy in every part of your life…

Our acclaimed, transformational Do What You Love e-course is back, and it’s perfect for anyone who wants to spend more time doing what they love, in places they love. The course runs for 5 weeks and it starts on June 15, 2015. To find out more click here.

“I’ve lived more, said yes to more, and opened my eyes more in the last few weeks that I have in the last year” ~ Birgitta Z

“I feel so excited about the future! I have learned so much about myself in the last five weeks. Now I really do trust that anything is possible.” ~ Claire K

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Life according to Mr K: Is doing what you love selfish?

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Recently Beth was on a panel at a debate in London, talking about whether Doing What You Love being good advice is ‘an urban myth’. As you can imagine, she was on the side arguing that it is important, valuable advice. During the lively debate, hosted by Barclays at the Royal Institute, a number of interesting points were raised by the audience. Due to time constraints, not all of these were discussed, but I wanted to pick up on one in particular that we hear quite often ourselves: the idea that doing what you love is selfish.

Personally I couldn’t disagree with this more. I think that the exact opposite is true. Of course, in the beginning when you are exploring your interests and your passions and realising your hopes and dreams, it may feel like you are being a little self-indulgent, especially if you aren’t used to spending time doing things that you enjoy and care about. But as soon as you open your heart and mind to doing what you love, through conversations, by being pro-active, or even starting a new business, you find that what you love starts to matter to other people too.

A personal journey towards doing what you love begins with asking yourself some really deep and thought-provoking questions. Questions that are all about you, your life and how you want it to be. But to perceive this as you being self-absorbed or even selfish is very short-sighted. Once you start to find the answers amazing things can happen. You start interacting with like-minded people who share your ideas, your passions and your interests, you open your heart and mind to exciting new opportunities that make help you learn and grow; you discover a greater charity and a willingness to share and collaborate, and you strive to be your best self.

Let me give you two very good examples based on two people featured in our recent Alchemy Series.

Dave Cornthwaite: a Graphic Designer who at 26 had everything that society had implied he needed to be successful. However he was far from happy. 10 years ago he left it all behind and set out on a journey to find some answers. His adventures since then have been very inspiring. His ‘Say Yes More’ campaign is helping transform the mindset of thousands and his newest project is helping plant a huge number of trees. His personal journey has ultimately allowed him to inspire many others to follow their own passions and do what they love.

Emily Penn: after University Emily was offered a job as an architect in Australia but because she was so committed to protecting the environment she refused to fly. Instead, she sailed there from the UK. It was on this journey that she discovered a deep love and respect for both the ocean and the communities she met along the way. Rather than taking the job, she became an ocean advocate and she is now passionate about eliminating plastics from the sea.

[Tweet ““Individually we are one drop, together we are the ocean” ~ Ryunosuke Satoro”]

These personal quests were pivotal to finding clarity and purpose and they highlight just what can be achieved when you follow your true passion. Maybe when you are the best ‘you’ that you can be, you can create the most opportunities to help and inspire others.

If you are struggling with the idea of doing what you love, or feel that it is selfish, or that it is hard to focus on your own plans and dreams when you have so many obligations to others, then I would encourage you to consider joining us for the Do What You Love e-course beginning on June 15, 2015. It will completely change your perspective, and help you understand why the world actually needs you to do what you love.

Either way, this month I’d like to challenge you to think about someone who inspires you. How they have followed their own passions? How have they ended up having a greater impact in the world as a result? Then think about what that could look like for you.

Until next time,

Mr K